Freedman's Village

The hundreds of thousands of graves at Arlington National Cemetery each offer a story of their own, which would be worthy of a Metro stop name. However, our proposed name turns back the clock to the days before the cemetery was established. In what many Unionists at the time considered to be an act of poetic justice, the federal government established “Freedmen’s Village” in 1863 on land where Robert E. Lee had lived for 30 years prior to the Civil War. (The estate belonged to his wife’s family.) The encampment served as a place for 1,100 African-Americans – most of whom were recently freed slaves and runaways – to live and work. However, life in the village was far from perfect. The citizens worked for $10 a week (of which they kept $5), had very little space, and had to survive on military rations. By 1900, the village was closed down and its residents were relocated.